Video Games

I figured I'd post one last time before March is up. I was thinking about just how fast paced life back home is compared to here for me and ended up writing out my thoughts some. I don't know how much sense it'll make to everyone but, meh, as long as it somehow makes sense to someone.

Again I'll throw in random photos you may not have seen yet. Enjoy.
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I often wonder if our consumerist society is having a negative effect on our souls. Video games are a great example (but we could talk about clothes, cars, blenders, you name it). We find ourselves always wanting more of what we already have, craving the newest and greatest thing. The video game industry is practically designed to pray on this.

Every year new improvements are made to hardware capabilities, moving even faster than the coding of the software to utilize it. Thus new games aren’t just ‘new’ in the same sense that a new book is ‘new,’ they’re vastly improved in a number of areas.

It’s said Shakespeare wrote all that could be written, but no one has even imagined what video games are capable of yet. And so we keep coming back for the newest improvements, whether that's better graphics, sound, playability or a random novelty (like the Wii’s controllers, seriously people, one-trick pony). Of course even those random novelties are only the beginnings of potentially greater things.

And so we’re constantly moving from one thing to another: one console to the next, an old wardrobe for a new. The most ridiculous might be the way we have new models of cars every year; the manufacturers rarely make vast improvements. When I bought my car I read that between 1990 and 1992 Honda had made a seatbelt adjustment on the Accord. That was the major difference between the three models (they might have changed the headlights too, but I can’t remember, the seatbelt part blew my mind).

Similarly so many people are constantly adopting new spiritualities until they need something more, something new. And so the Christian tries some Buddhism, the Buddhist tries some “new” Hinduism, the Hindu converts to Islam, and the Muslim tries his hand at “Science.” We mix, we match, we choose parts of religions that appeal to us and construct something that from the outset is certain to meet our spiritual needs.

But when that fails to meet our needs, where do we turn? Ultimately there are only so many spiritualities to try, so many combinations to make. You could make your own; but someday in a moment of honesty you’ll know that it was self-made. It doesn’t transcend your soul.

And are we just being fashionable? Is the contentment of putting on of a new religion similar to the excitement of wearing a new coat? Fitting perfectly today only to become raggedly insufficient tomorrow?

If we have this hole in our hearts that is constantly crying to be fed mustn’t we assume there is something out there that can sufficiently fill it? If not I suppose there’s no point to spirituality as all of them will fall maddeningly short of fulfilling. And besides, that can’t be because to give up would be to forsake all hope and admit that we are horribly incomplete and can never be made whole.

We need something stable, something true. We need something that will not only continue to feed and grow us throughout our lives, but to do so in increasingly deep and meaningful ways. If it doesn’t continue to open up new worlds and impart greater truth into our lives as we grow and meet new struggles then it won’t suffice. We need something more than the mundane, the ritual, we need God Himself to come in and transform us.

We need God to make us what He intended for us to be before the world went awry. And we all have a sense inside of us that it is in fact awry. Things certainly don’t seem to be getting better, at least overall in the big picture (even if my beard is getting longer and thus making me more handsome).

I’d challenge you to find whatever the Truth is and to hold onto it. Don’t settle for less. Don’t settle for a dissatisfied state of existence; even though finding the Truth will always leave you hungering for more you’ll also find yourself incredibly content. Hunt down that contentment and dive deeper into it. It exists, and it’s wonderful.